In autumn 1990, a few months after college graduation and not quite a year from the fall of the Iron Curtain, I embarked on my first trip abroad (aside from a second-grade Bahamas cruise). My English-teaching job in then-Czechoslovakia, for all I knew, would give me a few months to explore Europe and improve on my college German with real-life Middle-European interactions. The original stay lasted two school years.

My forthcoming memoir of that time, Slovakian Rhapsody, tells the story of a younger me, not too sure of myself, in a post-communist world where I’m also not so sure what to expect from his surroundings. I take the reader through culture shock, frustration and romance, dancing waltz, polka and czardas, singing in two different choirs, all while learning tons about culture, history and language.

In the time since, I’ve spent an additional five years in Europe, travelled to fifteen countries, earned a Ph.D. in Slavic languages and sung in several different choirs in the U.S. Virginia’s Eastern Shore, with its sixty miles of natural, unspoiled coastline a lovely place to visit in itself, has become home-base for my global journeys.

Aside from linguistics, I specialize in “Singing in tongues.” Currently a member of Coro Ángel of Cape Charles, Virginia, I’ve recently picked up a large repertoire of Spanish-language songs for voice and guitar. As a solo artist, I’ve recently performed a Gypsy-oriented collection of Central- and East-European music, from the Romani-language songs I personally learned from Roma musicians in Slovakia) to Hungarian operetta by Imre Kálmán to traditional Russian Gypsy songs. I’ve also sung Slovak and Russian songs in my own English versions, in addition to traditional East-European music that has been popularized by other artists in English translation (did you know that “Those Were the Days” was originally a Russian tune?)

This website and blog, then, represents a decades-long accumulation of experiences. It is my outlet for sharing them with the world through memoir and travelogue, through photos, video and audio. It is also about connecting with others who have similar interests.